[JP] Breath
"Can you believe it? My little girl, under the bright lights of the Great White Way! Look, she even got her first raving review! 'Leslie Valens, the next big thing!'"
Julianne smiles, taking the newspaper from Officer Valens, who was clearly gushing with pride as she quoted from the article. "Valens plays Joan with such strength and power that you almost believe she is channeling her.' Wow Ralph, you must be excited for her! She even got the promotional poster picture. Look Mike, ain't that great?" Jules moved over to hand him the newspaper, which he took with a chuckle.
"So your little girl is a Broadway star, huh Valens?"
"Yes sir! She's worked hard for it, too! You should have seen her when she found out! Boy, she..." Valens began to explain, but Michael didn't hear him. His eyes were locked on the page before him, oblivious to anyone around. It wasn't until his hands began to tremble that anyone noticed he was doing something other than reading. Tears welled in his eyes as Jules tried to shake him back to alertness, just as Natasha entered the room. She quickly moved to stop her, knowing what was happening.
* * *
The world was different today. Then again, it wasn't the world that was so different today. It was his perspective of it. He could almost understand what it was like to be on the outside looking in. The clouds were dark, and the stares he was getting from people he passed by were even darker... but that was not all too strange. What was strange was how life worked. How one day you could have everything in the world... and overnight, everything you had could be taken from you. Except he really had not lost everything... he was being taken from it. And he wasn't doing a thing to resist it.
He was not used to getting stared at. Sure, he got some stares every now and then, but it wasn't so much because of him but because of who he was with. She usually caused a bit of a sensation when she came to town, even if she did nothing but buy eggs at the market. Usually he got the warm smiles and the mildly curious looks at worst. No one could understand what he had seen in her, let alone understand why he had married her. But it didn't matter. She wasn't here today. The circumstances would no doubtedly prevent that from happening. Besides, today they weren't looking at her... they were looking at him with those expressions. The looks of hatred and contempt. He wasn't used to them directed at him... but expressions was the least of his problems today. Indeed, today he had one problem, and one alone.
Today it would be his last day.
As he walked to his destination, he knew it would be his last day. Considering what he was about to be put through, he prayed it would be.
He took the steps slow, keeping a careful pace to remain upright. The last thing he wanted as to fall right now. It was strange, but the only thing he could think of was that he did not want to be humiliated on his last moments. Funny how the mind worked.
It wasn't too long before he found himself on the platform, looking down on the crowd. But he wasn't alone yet. They were still getting him ready. It took a lot to burn a heretic at the stake. There was a reason they did not do it too often. It was too expensive, first and foremost. A secondary reason was they did not want the crowd to get so disgusted with the action that they would gain sympathy for those being burned. That would truly be a disaster. So they only did it to prove a point. In this case, the point was aimed at a very specific person. It was the very person that brought him up here to be tied to a stake. They were making a point to his wife.
Certainly, he was taking all the blame for everything. Everything they blamed her for... even things she didn't get blamed for. But it wasn't enough for them. They wanted to make sure she got the message, too. That with this action, she was being put on warning that the same may happen to her and their child. However, he was doing this for a more selfish reason than that. He just needed to know she would live. He needed to know she would survive and that their son would be alright. He knew she would take care of him with her dying breath. It was all he could do for her now. This was the only way he would be able to take care of her. Knowing that she would live on... that was more important than him doing so.
Finally, he was alone. Trussed up to the stake atop a pile of wood, he was left to stand there and wait. The priest was rattling off his sins, but he didn't hear him. He knew they were false, so why bother listening? Shutting his eyes, he tried to remember his son's face. He tried to remember her face. He tried to remember her voice. It was harder than he expected to be. The stress of all the events were catching up to him. The smell of smoke was just permeating the air, starting to play at his nostrils and he knew that it had started. He started to cough. Beads of sweat were forming on his brow.
He was starting to get hot.
Suddenly, it was a lot easier to hear her voice. It was a lot easier to see her face.
All he had to do was open his eyes.
Of course she'd be there. He should have known she would come. No one would have kept her from coming, not even him. She had never listened to him before, why would she start now? He knew then why she was here, and his heart broke as a series of thoughts came to him. She wouldn't let him die alone. She knew what it was like to live alone... and she always swore that neither of them would ever be alone again. Tears sprang in his eyes. He realized that he was leaving her alone. He always thought it would be the other way around. That his own luck would prevent him from ever keeping her at his side. Their eyes locked despite the smoke. It was all they needed to do. It was all they ever needed to do. He left the breath escape him as his eyes fluttered shut.
He would wait for her. Whatever lay before him, he would wait. After all... it was never life without her in it.
* * *
The tears spilled over as he drew in a breath that had seemingly stopped moments before. "I will wait... I will wait," came the quiet whisper.
Their eyes locked. And he knew then what he had never been able to remember before. "I always waited for you.
"My Delilah."
Word Count: 1,200